Sierra Foothills

The reason people dump on Herbert is because he plays like this once every ten games. Physically he's fairly close to Josh but he disappears for long stretches. And did you see him crumple along the sidelines after being hit at the end of that nice scramble? It was like he'd stepped off the curb and been blindsided by a metro bus... and not a 190 pound defensive back. I guess we're all just spoiled.

Meanwhile in Cleveland, Jim Schwartz just kicked his dog...

Anyone think Houston has a chance to beat KC in Arrowhead this weekend?

That FG at the end of the 1st Half was a turning point. The Broncos scored on a FG drive to open the 2nd half and I thought they stopped the bleeding but then there was a weird sequence of events including lots of defensive fouls which seemed to make Herbert wake up. Then he throws a TD pass and 2 point conversion that defenders get their hands on but can't defense. Weird momentum swing.

And now the most improbably thing has happened... the SoFi home crowd is making noise... what's next... a silent snap count?

Besides the improved play by Herbert... tons of defensive penalties and now the balls bouncing the other way.

Herbert's best game since setting the NFL record for TD passes by a rookie. This is the way people have been expecting him to play since then.

And now Herbert's injured... Two minutes from now he'll taken to the locker room on a gurney.

For one thing, Josh would play it off as if he'd been bitten by a mosquito and the officials would have concluded, no harm no foul. Then as a encore, Herbert comes up short on the two point conversion... a play on which Josh would score 100 out of 100 times because really the biggest difference between the two is toughness.

Interesting point. I'm not an analytics guy so I don't know... but I would say that when Xavier Worthy broke the 40 time at the combine this past April, he broke a record which had stood since 2017. Analogously, Usain Bolt set the 100 meter record in 2009. I think we're close to the ceiling on a lot of these performance drills so I think the effect on "re-calibrating" RASs will be minutely incremental.

Good drive by Denver to regain control of the game.

They do. There's a lot of overratedness in that organiation. But that historical play has given them new life.

I think technically that would be minus 3 points for the Bills.

This probably means that Woody Johnson's going to make a trade pitch for Josh this offseason.

I've been aware of that rule but that was the first time I saw it come into play. That's gonna give the Chargers a lift... as Payton said the Broncos are gonna have to be ready because the game changed complexion a bit.

Amazing that in 6 pages no one has mentioned... that the Chargers were 4.5 point favorites. Okay.... Taking the team from San Diego to Los Angeles would be roughly like taking the Bills to Rochester. I'd be pissed off but I'm not sure I'd abandon the team... and if they still had Josh I'd still cheer for the team. They're heading in the right direction but IMO still a year away. I couldn't believe they marked that as a first down before the replay review corrected it. The linesman was off by almost a yard.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/C/CousKi00.htm If you scroll down to "Passing" you can click on th "Playoffs" tab.

Regarding Kirk, his record in prime time night games is 13-20 and he's 1-4 in the playoffs. He hasn't played well when the lights shine brightest. As far as Herbert, yeah very underwhelming. I think it was before last year and some pundit had him as the 3rd best QB in the league, ahead of Josh. We won't be seeing stupidity like that anymore. Whatever it is that makes a QB great, Herbert doesn't have it which is interesting, considering he's arguably Josh's equal athletically. Harbaugh is also an interesting topic of discussion. His record speaks for itself but if you examine the team's he coached, he is not really an offensive mastermind. His one great 49ers team was just loaded at every position. Everywhere else his offenses have been run-first, pound-the-rock units... think Toby Gerhart. There's this assumption that Harbaugh will quarterback whisper some magic into Herbert's ears... but if they're successful together it'll be because Harbaugh's built a strong running game, defense and special teams around Herbert. Herbert is truly a physically gifted game manager.

It's weird that such a talked-about award is shrouded in such secrecy. Looking around the internet it appears that the POW awards are simply announced by the league office... but no one knows who decides the winners...

This is the 3rd time Josh has been named AFC OPOTW. It's the 14th time in 108 regular season weeks (12.97%) that he's been so honored. Significantly it came on the same weekend that Lamar Jackson threw for more TDs (5) than incompletions (4) and finished and posted a QB rating of 154.6. This marks the seventh time in his NFL career that Jackson has thrown more TDs than incompletions in a game... breaking a tie with Peyton Manning and Drew Brees. Incidentally Jackson has won OPOTW 13 times in 100 games. Not that I disagree with the decision but it makes me wonder how/who determines the league's weekly awards.

Wadya mean?

The first response is "how is this Tweet intended to be taken?" What does it mean? Is he possibly referencing yesterday's hiring of Michael Vick? Is there an actual basis for the belief that he's trying to force his way out of Miami? Not to mention a guy who has a talent for getting into trouble off the field... The Dolphins didn't beat us this year...

No, actually he's lost a step.